but instead, we are here tired in knots to avert a manufactured fiscal cliff which could have been avoided six months ago by the house passing s. 3412 to avert the tax hikes on 98% of americans. now, i have said repeatedly that i will evaluate any such fiscal cliff legislation on how these proposed policies affect working families and the real middle class. again, the real middle class, those make $30,000, $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 a year. so i'm disappointed to say that in my opinion, this legislation that we're about to vote on falls short. first, it doesn't address the number-one priority, creating good middle-class jobs now. unemployment remains way too high. this bill should include direct assistance on job creation measures. for example, our infrastructure, education, job retraining, how many jobs we see out there going wanting because people aren't trained for those jobs and yet we don't have enough money to put into job retraining. this legislation before us neglects our most pressing concern at the present time and that is the lack of jobs and the lack of qualified people to fill